Readers who pre-ordered J.K. Rowling’s new adult novel “The Casual Vacancy” eBook awoke to some major issues Thursday. There were problems with “the adjustability of font color and size and adjustability of margins” across all e-book retailers including Amazon and Barnes & Noble according to Hachette Book Group’s Little, Brown.

The publisher was informed of the problems by retailers and consumers Thursday morning. Little, Brown subsequently provided a new, corrected file, and asked retailers to contact any consumers who had purchased the older version of the e-book prior to 3 p.m. and tell them to reload a new version. The spokeswoman said she didn’t know how many copies were affected.

It’s an embarrassing error for the high-profile title, which carries a steep $17.99 price tag in e-book version. The novel was also greeted with a series of tough reviews Thursday morning that could hurt future sales.

Tough early reviews may make it harder for J.K. Rowling’s new adult novel “The Casual Vacancy” to generate staying power on the national best-seller lists. The book, set in a small town in England and focused on characters involved in a local election, went on sale nationwide this morning.

New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani told readers that there “is no magic in this book” and observed that the world Ms. Rowling has conjured up is “so willfully banal, so depressingly clichéd that ‘The Casual Vacancy’ is not only disappointing—it’s dull.”

The Los Angeles Times reviewer David Ulin noted that “what’s surprising, given Rowling’s ability to spin a story, is just how unsatisfying it ultimately becomes.” Elsewhere, Monica Hesse, writing in the Washington Post, wrote , “Much of the book I admired, even if I didn’t love,” before concluding that the novel “would be a little better if everyone were carrying wands.” Read More »

This morning, J.K. Rowling released her first book for adults, titled “The Casual Vacancy.”

Is it any good–or should she go back to writing Harry Potter books? We’re reading the new novel now and live-blogging our thoughts.

You can follow along after the jump.

6:35 am (EDT)

The first line of "The Casual Vacancy" is "Barry Fairbrother did not want to go out to dinner." So that's now become my first line too, in this, my live blog of my reading of the book. First lines in books are important--they say a lot of about an author's intentions, abilities, and style. "I am an invisible man." "Call me Ishmael." "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board." "Of all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, I've come to learn, is women." "A screaming comes across the sky." I like the fact that J.K. Rowling's first line is concise. So far, so good.

J.K. Rowling, the author of the “Harry Potter” children’s books, is looking to cast a spell over adults with her new book “The Casual Vacancy”–and the reviews of her new work are starting to come in.

Rowling’s new title hits stores on Thursday and her publisher, Little, Brown, has sought to exercise tight control over copies of the book. But with a U.S. print run of 2 million copies, some were bound to slip out.

The exact plot of the book hasn’t been announced. But the new issue of the New Yorker, which features an interview with Rowling, says the new novel is “a rural comedy of manners that, having taken on state-of-the-nation social themes, builds into black melodrama.” [You can read more here.]

The Hollywood Reporter wrote of the book “But if fans are expecting a Harry Potter-like book, they’re in for a shock: ‘The Casual Vacancy’ features some similar Harry Potter themes, such as morality and mortality, but that is where the comparisons end…It’s difficult to imagine the phrases ‘miraculously unguarded vagina’ or ‘with an ache in his heart and in his balls’ being found in the G-rated wizard novels, but they abound in ‘The Casual Vacancy.’”

The new book cover for J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults, “The Casual Vacancy,” has been released by publisher Little, Brown.

As previously announced by the publisher, the novel will be published on Sept. 27 and will revolve around internal strife within a seemingly idyllic town named Pagford. Barry Fairweather, a man in his forties, unexpectedly passes away, leaving a vacancy in the town council that prompts “the biggest war the town has yet seen.”

The cover is red with yellow piping and features a simple ballot box in the center with an “X” marked through it. It’s a sharp contrast to the covers of her “Harry Potter” series, which often featured scenes from Harry’s life, like playing Quidditch on the cover of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (U.S. edition). Read More »

J.K. Rowling, the author of the “Harry Potter” book franchise, has announced that her next book will be titled “The Casual Vacancy.”

The novel will be her first book for adults, and it is due out later this year. Rowling hasn’t said much about what the book is about, though she did tweet that it will be “Very different to Harry, although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much.”

More after the jump, including a summary of Rowling’s new book. Read More »

Yesterday, “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling announced that she was writing a new book, this time for adults. But one thing she didn’t do is give up very many details–like the title, the plot, or even when the book would come out. Virtually all that was revealed was that the book would be published in the U.S. by Little, Brown (Scholastic had published her “Potter” books in America) and that more information would be released later this year. Literary detectives everywhere are now searching for clues to what the new release is about, and some commentators are speculating that the work could be in the crime fiction genre. Little, Brown didn’t comment except through a mostly detail-free press release. A story in the Guardian recently announced “There’s no official word on what her new book will be about, but all the evidence points to a crime story.” As for Rowling, she’s still being cryptic. “As you may have heard, I have a new book out later this year. Very different to Harry, although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much,” she Tweeted this morning. Rowling’s books have sold more than 450 million copies world-wide; her last novel, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” published in July 2007, sold 11 million copies in its first 24 hours on sale in the U.S. [WSJ] Read More »

Rowling, the children’s book author behind the bestselling Harry Potter series, has announced that she has an agreement with Little, Brown to publish her first novel for grownups in the United States and Britain. The Harry Potter books were published by Scholastic in the U.S. and Bloomsbury in Britain.

Details about the new novel, including the title, subject and the release date, have yet to be announced. “Although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much, my next book will be very different to the Harry Potter series, which has been published so brilliantly by Bloomsbury and my other publishers around the world,” Rowling said in a statement. Little, Brown said more information about the book would be unveiled later in the year.

An Edinburgh neighbor, crime writer Ian Rankin, recently added to the speculation about Rowling’s new book by tweeting: “Wouldn’t it be funny if J K Rowling’s first novel for adults turned out to be a crime story set in Edinburgh? My word yes.”

Two weeks ago, actress and singer Patti LuPone grabbed a cell phone out of the hand of an audience member who was texting during a performance of her current play, "Shows for Days." The bold move led to an outpouring of support from fans fed up with glowing screens. Ms. LuPone gives us her five rules of theater etiquette.